Senate GOP leader McConnell won’t push for 15-week abortion law, says unlikely to pass

Pope Francis, pictured April 17, 2013. Credit: Mazur/catholicnews.org.uk. / null

Rome, Italy, Sep 15, 2021 / 09:20 am (CNA).
Pope Francis said Wednesday that the Catholic Church is firm in its stance on abortion because “abortion is murder,” and… […]

CNA Staff, Apr 16, 2020 / 02:00 pm (CNA).- The mayor of Greenville, Mississippi, has withdrawn a controversial executive order that levied fines on residents if they attended a drive-in church service.

On Wednesday, April 15, the City of Greenville announced on its website that “all drive in and parking lot church services are allowed as long as families stay in their cars with windows up and adhere to all state and federal social distancing guidelines.” 

Mayor Errick D. Simmons (D) was quoted as saying that he was “pleased to announce that Governor Tate Reeves has responded to my public request for definitive guidance on drive-in and parking lot church services. Thank you, Governor Reeves.” 

Gov. Reeves (R) instituted a stay-at-home order on April 3. 

A week prior, on April 7, Simmons issued an executive order instituting a 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. curfew, as well as an order that “all church buildings [be] closed for in-person and drive-in church services, until the State of Mississippi’s Shelter In Place Executive Order No. 1466 is lifted by Governor Tate Reeves.”

The order added that “churches are strongly encouraged to hold services via Facebook Live, Zoom, Free Conference Call, and any and all other social media, streaming, and telephonic platforms.”

On April 8, attendees of a parking-lot service at Temple Baptist Church in Greenville were fined $500 for violating the order. The people ticketed were sitting in their cars, with their windows rolled up, listening to a sermon broadcast on via radio. 

Two days after issuing the order, Simmons met with religious leaders in Greenville, and released a statement saying the ban on drive-in and in-person church services was Constitutionally sound. 

“This is no infringement on the right to religion or right to worship,” said Simmons. “Although it impacts on our traditional way of gathering to worship, it does not prevent us from worshipping. We need our pastors and worship leaders to be creative so that people’s lives are not at risk. Please post your services on social media, Facebook Live, Zoom, and other platforms and help your neighboring churches do the same.”

On April 11, police in Greenville blocked the parking lot of King James Bible Baptist Church, which was attempting to hold an Easter service. 

Both Temple Baptist Church and the King James Bible Baptist Church filed lawsuits against the City of Greenville, arguing that the city had been targeting churches and church goers with the executive order. In the lawsuits, the churches noted that other businesses in the city–such as a Sonic Drive-In, a fast-food chain where patrons are served food while in their cars–are often more crowded than the church parking lots and were not punished. 

Simmons announced on April 13 that the city would not be collecting fines from the churchgoers. 

The U.S. Department of Justice filed a statement of interest on Tuesday supporting Temple Baptist Church, and saying the city had engaged in discriminatory practices. 

“But even in times of emergency, when reasonable and temporary restrictions are placed on rights, the First Amendment and federal statutory law prohibit discrimination against religious institutions and religious believers,” said a statement from Attorney General William Barr. 

“Thus, government may not impose special restrictions on religious activity that do not also apply to similar nonreligious activity. For example, if a government allows movie theaters, restaurants, concert halls, and other comparable places of assembly to remain open and unrestricted, it may not order houses of worship to close, limit their congregation size, or otherwise impede religious gatherings. Religious institutions must not be singled out for special burdens.”

Barr added that “As we explain in the Statement of Interest, where a state has not acted evenhandedly, it must have a compelling reason to impose restrictions on places of worship and must ensure that those restrictions are narrowly tailored to advance its compelling interest.” 

There have been two confirmed deaths due to COVID-19 in Greenville, Mississippi, a city of approximately 34,000. There have been 62 confirmed cases in Washington County, where Greenville is located.

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Cardinal Marc Ouellet takes part in the Pontifical Council for Culture’s Plenary Assembly on Women’s Cultures in Rome, Feb. 6, 2015. / Bohumil Petrik/CNA.

Denver Newsroom, Aug 19, 2022 / 10:00 am (CNA).

Cardinal Marc Ouellet, Prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops, on Friday denied having made inappropriate gestures on a woman who has alleged he sexually assaulted her.

“Having become aware of the false accusations made against me by the complainant (F.), I firmly deny having made inappropriate acts on her person and I consider the interpretation and dissemination of these allegations as sexual assaults defamatory,” Ouellet said Aug. 19.

“If a civil investigation should be opened, I will actively participate in it so that the truth is established and my innocence is recognized.”

Ouellet was accused of sexual assault by a woman identified as F. in a civil suit filed against the Archdiocese of Quebec Aug. 16.

He is accused by a woman who says that he assaulted her multiple times while she worked as a pastoral intern for the Quebec archdiocese between 2008 and 2010, while he was Archbishop of Quebec. She described him kissing her and sliding his hand down her back to her buttock.

A Vatican spokesman said Aug. 18 that the conclusion of a preliminary investigation by Father Jacques Servais, SJ, found “that there are no elements to initiate a trial against Cardinal Ouellet for sexual assault.”

The Vatican statement included a quote in French from Servais, who said that “there are no grounds to open an investigation into the sexual assault of F. by Card. M. Ouellet. Neither in his written report sent to the Holy Father nor in the testimony via Zoom that I subsequently took in the presence of a member of the Diocesan Ad Hoc Committee, did this person make an accusation that would provide grounds for such an investigation.”

Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni added that “following further pertinent consultations, Pope Francis declares that there are insufficient elements to open a canonical investigation for sexual assault by Cardinal Ouellet against person F.”

The class action suit in which the allegations were made includes the testimony of 101 people who say they were sexually assaulted by clerics or Church staff from 1940 to the present. Eighty-eight clerics face accusations in the suit.

The suit says that F. wrote to Pope Francis about Ouellet in January 2021, and she received an email Feb. 23, 2021 had appointed Servais to investigate the cardinal. Her last communication with Servais was the following month, and as of now “no conclusion concerning the complaints against Cardinal Marc Ouellet has been sent” to her.

Ouellet, 78, was ordained a priest of the Diocese of Amos in 1968, at age 23. He joined the Sulpicians in 1972. In 2001 he was appointed secretary of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, and consecrated a bishop.

He served as Archbishop of Quebec from 2002 to 2010, when he was appointed prefect of the Congregation for Bishops and president of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America.

Ouellet has been outspoken about sex abuse, and priestly formation.

At a 2018 meeting of the Presidents of the Bishops’ Conferences of Europe, he said that “We would need participation of more women in (training) of priests” to prevent abuse.

He reiterated this point in a 2020 interview with Donne Chiesa Mondo, saying, “for the priest, learning to relate to women in the context of formation is a humanizing factor which promotes the balance of man’s personality and affectivity.”

The cardinal said he thought the Church would benefit greatly from an increased presence of women on seminary formation teams, as theology, philosophy, and spirituality teachers, and “in particular in vocational discernment.”

Ouellet verbally sparred with Archbishop Vigano as details of Vatican knowledge of Theodore McCarrick emerged in recent years. 

In an October 2018 letter, Ouellet said it was communicated to Vigano in 2011 that McCarrick “had to obey certain conditions and restrictions because of rumors about his behavior in the past,” and that he “was strongly urged not to travel and not to appear in public, in order not to provoke further rumours about him. It is false to present the measures taken against him as ‘sanctions’ decreed by Pope Benedict XVI and annulled by Pope Francis.”

And in January 2019, Ouellet wrote that his congregation had blocked the U.S. bishops from voting on proposals to address the sex abuse crisis in November because it believed more time was needed to discuss the measures.

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